I have a friend who lives in Houston. If you're looking to know what it's like to live in Houston as a conservative making $200k+/year I'll see what I can find out. I somehow don't think that's a match for you, though.

Tomas wrote:I think you can do MUCH worse in the US. AFAIK, Houston is a high-growth, high-tech city, three excellent universities (Rice, UofH, A&M within a manageable driving distance), reasonably liberal (I think they are the largest city in the US with an openly gay mayor). Ultimately, career opportunities and growth options beat weather any day for me. (Since I spend a lot of time in Twin Cities, hot weather does not seem bad at all to me... )

What does reasonably liberal mean? And how does a gay mayor make a city liberal?

Low personal income taxes, de-regulated energy sector, and a government supporting tax credits/grants to support productive corporate partners. I have a bunch of customers there... Its a great place if you need a job and are willing to work, as many of the companies run fairly lean at the corporate layer and reward hard work and also have lots of labor-related careers that pay well.

As for the social scene... not sure. Only seen the inside of offices and hotel rooms.

Posts from a forum? I think you are extrapolating a bit, or perhaps falling victim to what you see on TV/Read on internet. Sweeping statements like these are both patently false in that they can't be proven and generally based on opinion.

Posts from a forum? I think you are extrapolating a bit, or perhaps falling victim to what you see on TV/Read on internet. Sweeping statements like these are both patently false in that they can't be proven and generally based on opinion.

OK, then let's agree that it's my opinion that to the extent people identify themselves as social liberals and social conservatives, the fact that Houston can elect an openly gay person as a mayor does suggest that the social liberals have a greater share of vote/influence in that city compared to the majority of other Texas communities. I think (and sincerely hope) that the OP understood this.

Tomas wrote: OK, then let's agree that it's my opinion that to the extent people identify themselves as social liberals and social conservatives, the fact that Houston can elect an openly gay person as a mayor does suggest that the social liberals have a greater share of vote/influence in that city compared to the majority of other Texas communities. I think (and sincerely hope) that the OP understood this.

Troy Loney wrote:If you have been there, is this a city you'd ever considered living in?

How old are you? If the job is enough money for you to live and start planning for the future, go for it. If you don't have a wife/kids to consider, take advantage of the opportunity. You never know what will happen in a few years to prevent you from doing something like this. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But I would say to give it at least a year.

Troy Loney wrote:If you have been there, is this a city you'd ever considered living in?

How old are you? If the job is enough money for you to live and start planning for the future, go for it. If you don't have a wife/kids to consider, take advantage of the opportunity. You never know what will happen in a few years to prevent you from doing something like this. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But I would say to give it at least a year.

If it were just about money I would do it. But i'm not really money driven, i don't want to go somewhere and make $100,000 to just buy a suburban house. I get the impression that there's not much of an urban/residential culture in TX, it's all just spread out and you have to get on a highway to go anywhere...that's just not the life i want.

Tomas wrote: :face: OK, then let's agree that it's my opinion that to the extent people identify themselves as social liberals and social conservatives, the fact that Houston can elect an openly gay person as a mayor does suggest that the social liberals have a greater share of vote/influence in that city compared to the majority of other Texas communities. I think (and sincerely hope) that the OP understood this.

I've have a job offer from GM in Austin, I don't know if I want to ditch everyone I'm friends and start over again though. Would be nice to be near the race track of the americas and you're not far from the Texas Stars hockey team.

I don't know if you are still considering Houston, but CNBC had been devoting today's broadcast to that city. Basically, they made it sound like Houston is THE place to do business and to live. Some of the videos:

Interestingly, my colleague just returned from Houston trip with our top portfolio class. It looks like Houston companies (such as BHP Billiton) are ready to hire so many financial analysts that they are even willing to sponsor foreigners for their Green Cards (something that was almost never done by US firms lately).